Application of physicochemical data for water-quality assessment of watercourses in the Gdansk Municipality (South Baltic coast)

The paper presents water-quality evaluation based on an 8-year monitoring programme in the Gdansk Municipality region, on the Southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The studies were carried out from 2000 to 2007 by surface water analysis at 15 various sites within eight watercourses. Sampling sites included rather urbanized or developed lands, farming fields and non-polluted city recreational areas such as parks and forests. Most of the watercourses were sampled monthly at two locations, one within the upper course of the watercourse and the other near its mouth. In all samples, eight parameters of water quality were determined: total suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, water temperature, oxygen saturation, 5-day biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus and total nitrogen concentration. Interpretation of the obtained results revealed that examination of those basic physicochemical parameters permits to discriminate initially watercourses with respect to level of water contamination. During the research, a large dataset was obtained and it was described by both basic statistical parameters and chemometric method of cluster analysis. The paper presents relations between analysed parameters and influence of land exploitation mode on water quality and describes variation of the results both in space and time.